Eva Rausing 'had info on murder of Swedish Prime Minister'

Socialite whose husband left her body unburied for two months after she died had contacted Swedish police

LAST UPDATED AT 11:25 ON Wed 29 Aug 2012

IT HAS emerged that Eva Rausing - the London socialite and wife of Tetra Pak heir Hans Christian Rausing - contacted the Swedish authorities shortly before her death, claiming to have information on the 1986 assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme.

Rausing, 48, died on 7 May of a heart attack coupled with drug use but her husband kept her body unburied, under a pile of coats on a bed in their £70m Chelsea home, for two months. He is serving a suspended two-year sentence for the crime.

Now, The Daily Telegraph reports, Swedish authorities have confirmed that she contacted them, believing she knew who shot Palme nearly three decades ago as he walked home from the cinema with his wife.

The Social Democrat PM's murder traumatised the peaceful nation which had never much worried about the security of its leaders. Palme and his wife Lisbet were alone on the street, with no protection, when they were both shot on the evening of 8 October in Stockholm. Lisbet was not seriously wounded but Palme died at the scene.

A petty criminal and drug addict, Christer Pettersson, was jailed for the killing in 1988 but his conviction was overturned on appeal and he was released the following year, dying in 2004. Sweden's 25-year statute of limitations on murder was extended in 2010 and the murder remains unsolved.

The Telegraph quotes Swedish newspaper Expressen which reported last week that Rausing believed she knew the killer to be "an entrepreneur" who had feared Palme was a threat to his business. Rausing is said to have been "afraid" of the alleged killer - but claimed to know where the murder weapon was hidden.

The paper claims this was not the first time that Rausing had approached the Swedish authorities about Palme - she talked to investigators about the case in 2010 but they did not think her information was credible.

This time, Expressen reports, the Palme investigative team want to talk to Hans Christian Rausing about information his wife claimed he had given to her about the assassination.